Paper Submissions
Information about the call for papers, submission themes and guidelines for Design4Health 2020. Submissions are now closed and proceedings have been published.
Please note: Design4Health 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic. Proceedings were published online as planned. The final proceedings are available through Sheffield Hallam University.
Aims and Scope
DesignLab at University of Twente, Waag (technology and society), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University invited papers, posters and artefacts from researchers and practitioners for the sixth European Design4Health conference 2020, held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The conference invited papers from researchers and practitioners across the areas of design, creative practice and health in order to develop new dialogues and offer different perspectives. Contributors were placed at the interface of design in health practice and research. The conference explored creative approaches and perspectives to enhance understanding and experience, and to improve the efficiency of health and wellbeing services and products.
Given the strong focus on designing with people instead of for them, submissions from individuals using services and products, as well as the sharing of real-life experiences, were particularly encouraged.
The annual theme for this conference was Designing Future Health. The committee particularly welcomed submissions that considered the role of design in the future of health and care, inviting papers and posters addressing the specific themes described below.
Conference Themes
Submissions were invited across the following tracks
I) Meta Themes
Papers focused on Methods, Ethics, Evaluation, Theory-informed Design, Education and Training that cross-linked into one or more of the themes listed below.
II) Citizen Science and Community-Driven Care
Person-centred care, co-production of services and artefacts, healthcare facilitation from both practice and patient perspectives, community informatics, participatory design and lived experience.
III) Designing for Urban Vitality
Research and practice in healthy city design, accessibility and skill-sharing, including topics such as inclusive environments, sports, exercise science and remote care.
IV) Case Model Design
Design for health through strategic mapping, scenario planning, tradable care chains, integrated care models and service innovation frameworks.
V) Personalised eHealth Technology
Conceptual design for connected devices, wearables and assistive technologies, smart materials, robotics, screening tools and shared decision-making platforms.
VI) Health Data Design and the Digital Self
Designing artificial intelligence for health, privacy and ethics around health data, information management and interpretation, and data visualisation approaches.
VII) Sustainable Health and Wellbeing
Public health, global health, eco-health, health promotion and education, circular design principles, eating behaviour research, flourishing communities and physical activity.
VIII) Wildcard: Designing Dystopian Futures
Responsible design for health (including failures), transhumanism, dystopian futures, high-tech versus low-tech solutions for health and wellbeing, and traditional or indigenous practices and knowledge.
Submission Guidelines
Submission Types
Abstracts: 300-word abstracts (up to 3 images, maximum file size 1 MB) were submitted in Word or RTF format. Abstracts needed to respond to one or more of the conference themes above. All abstracts were double-blind reviewed. Authors of accepted proposals were invited to present at the conference and to submit full papers.
Full Papers: Papers of approximately 3,000 words described the work in greater depth and could be accompanied by up to 7 images. Full papers were reviewed and accepted for publication in the proceedings (Design for Health, Volumes 1 through 4).
Posters: Poster submissions were invited in the form of a 150-word abstract plus an A4 or A3 visual representation of the work in PDF format.
Abstract and Poster Submission Format
Abstracts required a maximum of 300 words (including keywords), a maximum of 3 optional images, 150 words describing key text, and a maximum of 3 optional keywords. Paper abstracts also required a brief statement of originality of approximately 50 words.
Important Dates and Deadlines
The final paper deadline was extended to Sunday 3 May 2020. If the abstract was accepted but a full paper was not submitted, the abstract with full author details was published in the proceedings. Delegates who did not attend the conference and whose paper or abstract was not included in the proceedings received notification accordingly.
All presenting papers, posters or artefacts were expected to attend the conference on a regular paying basis (one person, one accepted paper, no more than one paper). Confirmation by the lead author was requested by 27 March 2020. Paper presenters had a slot of 15 minutes to present at the conference (10 minutes plus 5 minutes for questions), with parallel sessions as part of the scheduled programme on 1, 2 and 3 July.
Publication
Selected authors were invited to submit extended papers for consideration for the Design for Health journal (Taylor and Francis). Full papers and abstracts have been published in the online proceedings with ISBN 978-1-8381117-0-0.
For information about the Doctoral Colloquium, please visit the dedicated page. For general enquiries, contact the team.